Masquerade hits 10m admissions at Korean box office

CJ Entertainment’s historical drama Masquerade [pictured] has clocked up over 10 million admissions, becoming the seventh Korean film to pass that benchmark at the local box office.

Directed by Choo Chang-min, the film stars crossover actor Lee Byung-hun from films such as Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw The Devil and the Hollywood G.I. Joe franchise.

Lee plays dual roles as a paranoid, womanising monarch who finds a doppelganger to avoid assassination and a commoner who looks like the king. When the real king is poisoned, the imposter is forced to take his place temporarily and starts implementing new policies that focus on the people instead of politics.

Released Sept 13, the film had made it to 10,041,566 admissions and grossed $66.1m by Oct 20, according to KOFIC’s ticketing system. CJ is touting this as the same rate as all-time box office hit Avatar in Korea.

This year has been a busy one for local hits, with Showbox’s heist film The Thieves going over 13 million admissions on Oct 2, displacing Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 film The Host (also distributed by Showbox at the time) as Korea’s top local film at the box office.

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